I’ve asked this question before, but there’s a whole bunch of other people around these traps these days, so I thought I’d ask again: how do you rate the other cryptic compilers in the SMH or The Age?
Maybe once every couple of months I’ll do an NS and a DP, mostly because I find NP a nice, quick romp and DP an amusing bit of fun (although I think DP’s crosswords have dropped in quality recently).
I know a DS is a better-quality crossword than an NS or DP, but I find the DS requires too much thinking without enough joy and I rarely get around to looking at it. DP has the jokes, NS the ease; DS has neither.
RM and EP on the Monday I almost never do — the clues always seem very messy.
DH I find an abomination — obscure words and simple wordplay that only serves to annoy.
I once did EP with my eyes closed. True. I blinked and finished it.
NP is indeed “a nice, quick romp”.
From time to time, DP can deliver a really pleasing crossword. Try:
http://www.dillgroup.ucsf.edu/~grocklin/smh/2009-08-12_Wed_DP.puz
from the motherlode. Genuinely fun, neatly themed.
While I certainly share your distaste for DH and his penchant for the wantonly recondite, I wouldn’t rate DS too far ahead … I wince at his strained wordplay far too often. (Yew trees must be 100″ tall around where he lives; there’s just no other explanation for the length of the bows he continually draws.)
The only other crossword I do regularly from the Age is Sunday’s which is not “signed”. It generally has a lot of short puns which can be fun.
I agree that NS is a nice easy puzzle. She always starts with the first clue being a longish anagram.
My main source of cruciverbalist pain at the moment is The Times Crossword Collection (ISBN 0-00-721300-X if anyone wants to find it). I haven’t managed to complete any without help yet! I’ve tried about 15 of the 160 in the book so I am hopeful. Some beautifully constructed clues in it, eg/ Character with whom it’s rash to play poker, for a start (4-5) = CARD-SHARP
I started my cryptic puzzling with DS and got into the rhythm of his/her (?) thinking after a while, but since moving on to DA I’ve had to learn more and change my whole crossword approach. DA’s crosswords are meatier and therefore more satisfying and fun. Now when I go back to DS I find myself looking for things that aren’t there (e.g. mixing up the letters of a synonym rather than the letters in front of me!). So now I get frustrated with DS and I am virtually a cruciverbal monogamist. (Anyway, who has time for more than one really decent crossword a week?!)
I shouldn’t have time, but I make it. used to do all the Age/SMH crosswords, even had an online subscription to them for a year, but sort of outgrew them. NS too easy, EP too annoying, DH too fond of putting in really obscure words to fill in awkward corners. DS OK but a lot of work, as Jonathan says, for little payoff. DP is an excellent beginner’s puzzle, with good clue syntax and even the odd micro-theme, but after a while I found him too easy.
Apart from DA, I do the Guardian crosswords, which are these days available online for nothing. They’ve had pseudonyms on their puzzles for decades, and this has allowed the setters to develop their own styles. Favourites are Araucaria (who we may not have for much longer, he’s pushing 90) and Paul. You could also check out the Financial Times and Independent crosswords.
About 1970 my Mom started me on SMH cryptics when I was in high school. The clue that got me hooked was ‘US wigwam (4, 2, 3, 5)’. I did them off and on over the years, interspersed with The Times, until 7 years ago. At that time the challenge was to get them out during morning tea, but it got to a stage where I finished them too quickly and then had to put up with my colleagues talking about football. So in the past handful of years I’ve been concentrating on DA and the Guardian. My Mom (87 y.o.) still breezes through the other SMH crosswords, but usually ends up throwing DA on the floor and stomping on it and swearing before I phone her on Friday evening (‘when the sun is over the yard-arm’) and swapping notes with her.
I was introduced to cryptics via some friends each Saturday morning about ten years ago now. I don’t know if DS was the Saturday cruciverbalist back then, and for a good five or six years I paid no attention to who wrote the cryptic. I just dipped into them willy-nilly, whenever I had the chance and I felt the need, really.
It was only after RC and I discovered that we both did cryptics about four years ago — which was about five years after we’d first met — and he extolled the virtues of DA’s cryptics that I paid close attention to who wrote them.
Before then, I did cryptics so irregularly that who wrote them was of no concern.
I get pleasure from the DA all week, because it takes me that long. The Christmas DA was the second or third DA I’ve finished without assistance or collaboration, after more than ten years of trying.
I avoid the Monday crossword because it contains the solution to the DA. This is easier than avoiding Saturday’s crossword, which I used to have to do before DA’s move to Saturday in The Age.
@Ian: Araucaria’s 90th birthday was yesterday. The Grauniad cryptic was (sort of) a tribute to him, and the man himself has today’s puzzle.
I really can’t differentiate the Sat-Thurs compilers except that Saturday sometimes tests just a little more. But it’s really daylight between DA and the rest.
If it’s a choice (like I’m going onto a plane) I choose The Times crossword in The Australian every time, except on a Friday.
So what happened to EP today (Monday 30/4/12). I like NS and EP but today EP is missing. Instead we get LR with silly linked clues. Bring back EP!
KathyL